Labour leader piled the pressure on David Cameron during a speech in Essex on 5 AprilCarl Court/ Getty Images

Jeremy Corbyn has urged David Cameron to consider imposing "direct rule" from the UK on the British Virgin Islands and other territories in a bid to crackdown on tax havens. The Labour leader's radical request comes amid a scandal over the financial affairs of the world's elite.

"They are self-governing, yes, but they are British crown dependent territories. Therefore, surely, there has to be an observance of UK tax law in those places," Corbyn told the BBC. "If they have become a place for systematic evasion and short-changing the public in this country, then something has to be done about it. Either those governments comply or a next step has to be taken."

The 11.5m document leak explainedIBTimes UK

The Labour leader also revealed that he was happy to publish his own tax return, while David Cameron has faced increasing pressure over the leak after it emerged that his late father, Ian, was allegedly found to be a client of Mossack Fonseca. Cameron has called for more transparency in tax havens, but a spokeswoman for the British prime minister insisted to the press lobby that his family's investments are a "private matter".

Elsewhere, Mossack Fonseca co-founder Ramón Fonseca has branded the leak as a "crime". The lawyer also claimed that his firm has never been "convicted or accused or any wrongdoing". "Privacy is a fundamental human right that is being eroded more and more in the modern world. Each person has a right to privacy, whether they are a king or a beggar," he told the AfP news agency.

The government of the British Virgin Islands had not responded to a request for comment from IBTimes UK at the time of publication.

All of those implicated in the ICIJ Panama Papers report have been afforded the opportunity to respond: Visit the ICIJ website to read the responses.